Otaiba urges al­lies to work to­gether

The UAE is ac­tively in­volved in fight­ing ex­trem­ism in Ye­men and through­out the re­gion with men on the ground and in the air, a govern­ment of­fi­cial has said.

Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE Am­bas­sador to the United States (right), made the com­ments dur­ing his visit to Dal­las, Texas, where he high­lighted com­mer­cial and cul­tural ties be­tween the UAE and the state.

Otaiba’s speech in­cluded top­ics such as the im­por­tance of con­tin­ued US en­gage­ment with its clos­est al­lies in the re­gion to ad­dress the most press­ing se­cu­rity chal­lenges, in­clud­ing de­feat­ing ISIS and coun­ter­ing rad­i­cal ex­trem­ism.

“And to be clear again, the UAE is ac­tively in this fight with boots on the ground and wings in the air. Beyond the bat­tle­field, we must con­tinue to in­ten­sify our col­lec­tive ef­forts in the area of coun­ter­ing vi­o­lent ex­trem­ism.

“While the UAE and our Gulf part­ners are ac­tively tak­ing on a broader lead­er­ship role in the re­gion, US in­volve­ment re­mains in­dis­pens­able to help ad­dress to­day’s chal­lenges. Deeper US en­gage­ment with long­stand­ing part­ners will not only help in con­fronting threats, but it will also give the US an op­por­tu­nity to work with coun­tries like the UAE to carve out a pos­i­tive path for­ward in the Mid­dle East.”

Otaiba also ad­dressed the “crit­i­cal need” for the US to work with its al­lies to ad­dress Iran’s desta­bil­is­ing ac­tiv­i­ties in the re­gion.

He said: “Work­ing to­gether, we must take con­crete steps to check Iran’s ag­gres­sion and make sure they are con­tribut­ing to a con­struc­tive path for the re­gion.”